Oh, here it comes. This is where things start to get a little complicated for me. I could never tell if my understanding of the upcoming concepts/plot points are due to my Western point of view on what follows from what evidence, or if I was just genuinely missing something the first three times around. I did tend to kind of rush through some of this arc, as I found it less engaging than the others thus far. Perhaps with a closer look this time, I'll be able to pinpoint exactly why that might be, because I remember there were a couple CERTAIN parts of it that were VERY compelling. Not getting ahead of myself and the blog here, but if you know, you know.
That WOULD be heartwarming, if it weren't painfully obvious that something is about to go horribly wrong and these guys will never make it past that final mountain.
The soldiers look up with confusion when a strange sound echoes over them, and spot what looks like a long white giant fish flying through the sky. It's not long before this dreamlike vision becomes a nightmare.
The formation allowed for them to be scooped up one big bite.
Cut to Hakudoushi and Kohaku, floating in a protective bubble high in the sky. Poor Kohaku, having to rely on everyone else for a ride all the time. He's reminiscing about the "crystalized youki" in a big pile Kagura had shown him, and how she had explained that the youki in the crystals disappear when they get near a stone called the "Fuyouheki". Examining one of these crystals closely, Kagura says that Naraku has most likely handed the stone off to his infant incarnation, and this means that the crystals are a good clue to finding that very baby. Kohaku also scrutinizes one of the crystals closely in his memory, and when he comes back to the present, he glares at Hakudoushi's back, thinking that both him AND Narkau should die when the infant is destroyed.
Hakudoushi is preoccupied with something entirely different, drawing Kohaku's attention to a rising cloud of streaking balls of light in the distance, which he labels as peoples' souls. Kohaku repeats the phrase in question, and Hakudoushi mutters that it seems a lot of them were eaten, specifically by a youkai named "Haku". Chapter title reference aside, Hakudoushi does not explain further, and instead just invites Kohaku to hunt this thing with him. How does Hakudoushi manage to make the task of taking down this army-eating creature OMINOUS?
Haku itself is flying around in the sky, whale-like mouth thankfully closed at the moment.
Well that didn't take long, did it?
While they stand atop the headless body of the creature, Hakudoushi instructs Kohaku to slice open the belly without damaging the stomach. Kohaku precisely does as he's told, revealing through a slit in the skin a sack filled with round glowing objects. He wonders what they are, and as if he's reading the boy's mind, Hakudoushi says they're human spirits, what Haku fed on. Kohaku parrots the word as a question and Hakudoushi chuckles, asking aloud if he should make sense of all this. I think the readers might appreciate it... so you're not going to, are you?
HakuDOUCHIE.
Cut to a dirt devil spinning along the ground while a couple of guys in furs and a pack of wolves chase after it, the former begging to be waited for.
Ah, Kouga, long time no see! If I didn't know any better, I would think RT FORGOT about you or something.
His underling with the two-toned hair demands to know if Kouga thinks something is strange, while the one with the mohawk tells Kouga to have some situational awareness and look around him. After a noise of frustrated confusion, Kouga finally comes to a stop in the middle of a stretch of rocky land where various dismembered youkai are littering the ground. Panting and flushed (with annoyance as well as the exercise), Two-Tone tells him that this area has been strewn with pieces of youkai since they got there, and Mohawk says the number of the pieces has been increasing as well.
Kouga suggests that's LITERALLY why they've been running this way, and Two-Tone slumps, muttering about how Kouga wants to reach "it", presumably the thing that's causing all this carnage. Mohawk is of a similar deflated attitude, thinking he KNEW it. Kouga says that the smell of blood is fresher ahead as they follow the trail of youkai pieces, which means the culprit has to be somewhere ahead. While he can't be sure Naraku is involved, he does admit it's been an awfully long time since they've had a clue. You're telling ME.
A howl sounds at a short distance, then a figure emerges out of the rolling fog ahead. Kouga and his underlings stare at this approaching hunched silhouette, the former glaring placidly, the latter agape and cringing in horrified disbelief.
All this thing's mismatched eyes lock on Kouga, waggling its tenta-tongue at him, and Kouga can't help but gape and wonder what it is, noting that it looks like disparate youkai pieces were slapped together. He has to leap out of its way when its head dives and scoops at the earth where he was standing, getting a mouthful of dirt instead. Kouga twists on his way back down and swings a powerful kick at the creature.
Narrow sky transition panel! Inuyasha and company have crested a hill, Sango asking Miroku about status, and Miroku reporting that there's been no change to the crystal he's holding, therefore the Fuyouheki isn't nearby. He holds up the slightly glowing stone and examines it in the light, saying he had THOUGHT they would be able to quickly catch up with the fleeing Naraku as long as they had it.
Sango appears to respond with a non sequitur about Naraku's heart. I checked my physical copy of the official Viz manga, and it's relatively the same there - think perhaps she was correcting him about them catching up with Naraku's HEART rather than Naraku himself, because when Miroku turns to ask Inuyasha if that's what he thinks, Inuyasha answers in the affirmative. He cites Kikyou, who he remembers saying that Naraku has taken his heart outside his body.
Shippou pops up on Inuyasha's should, asking him with clear suspicion if that's ALL Inuyasha talked to Kikyou about. SHIPPOU NO. SHIPPOU DON'T. This kid seriously trying to revive relationship drama that we are ALL sick of? Sweatdropping under this hyper-scrutiny, Inuyasha affirms that it was JUST the thing about Naraku's heart. A sulking Kagome thinks that there was no reason for Inuyasha and Kikyou to talk secretly if that was all it was, though.
Ugh, just remember Writch. They're stupid fucking teenagers. Emphasis on STUPID.
Or, or, here's an idea: we could just keep going with the ACTUAL story.
Thank goodness that Inuyasha's nose starts working all of a sudden, because he alerts everyone to the fact that he smells youkai nearby. They race on into the area with all the youkai parts lying around, and I'm happy to observe that Kagome isn't SO irritated with the Kikyou conversation that she's riding on Kirara instead of Inuyasha's back. But when Shippou observes from Miroku's shoulder that the pieces of youkai are increasing the farther they move along, Inuyasha maintains a tense silence.
Until of course he mutters to Kagome over his own shoulder that she shouldn't SULK the whole time. I feel like this is the wrong fucking move. Kagome looks away and insists she's not sulking, annoyed, and Inuyasha asks her what's with the attitude if she's not. He tells her in no uncertain terms that he and Kikyou did not discuss anything shady at all. To the surprise of NO ONE, Kagome snips that she knows that, and he's being too noisy right now. Take that hint bro and shut your mouth about it already.
Also to no one's surprise, he doesn't. He immediately takes offense and demands to know what the fuck she means by that, calling her a bitch, quite the opposite of shutting the fuck up about it. Lucky for him, she's distracted from the growing argument by the sense of a Shikon shard that she alerts the others to. She also says it's two shards, and announces it's Kouga. A vein pops on Inuyasha's temple, his annoyance jumping to new heights in the space of a single second. Shouldn't he have been able to smell the guy? Kagome asks him what's wrong, urging him to hurry it up, and Inuyasha responds by commanding her to shut up. What, the thing you should have been doing this whole time?
Cut to Kouga punching through the combo youkai with a powerful kick. After it collapses to the ground in a heap of its disparate parts, a clump of glowing orbs starts to rise out of it. Kouga's underlings observe this as Inuyasha and crew arrive.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Here's the thing: I didn't miss Kouga. I didn't ask where he got off to this entire time he's been missing, and now that he's back, I kind of see why. We've seen this same scenario play out between him and his followers several times by this point; he runs too fast, they whine at him to stop, they have an exchange about their surroundings, Kouga knows/doesn't care, rinse, repeat. Without much variation, it's gotten very old. Not to mention, his reappearance now coincides rather handily with another encounter with Kikyou, which gives away why he's REALLY here to begin with.
Because this everlasting argument between Inuyasha and Kagome over his interactions with Kikyou have gotten stale too. I give the characters room because they're stupid kids, but there's only so much patience I have when there are much more interesting and engaging places RT could go with the narrative, and she just keeps re-covering this ground over and over. Still, the "love triangle" is titillating to her target teen audience, so she and her publishers/editors are dragging this out as long as possible. One of the ways in which they can do that is to play off of INUYAHSA'S jealousy as well, so in pops Kouga to be the Kikyou on THAT side of the equation, hopefully balancing it out so that there's a little more reason for Inuyasha to understand how Kagome feels. OR, at least they can distract readers with a slightly different angle while they keep the relationship drama as high as possible for longer than is wise.
At least I like the design of this weirdo piecemeal youkai. It's so chaotic and illogical that it's delightful, and is another of those that reminds me more of the early days of this manga's monster design, days that I very much miss. This thing is the WORST, like a creepy Frankenstein's Monster built by a child out of dirty rags while suffering from a high fever, and I LOVE it.
I prefer it to the tired old trail of romantic drama that we're all treading yet again, anyway.
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